Should America be 'restored' or 'rebuilt?'

[caption id="attachment_17546" align="alignleft" width="800"] Franklin Graham sits with his father, Billy Graham[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — "I pray that all Christians and God-fearing Americans will put aside labels and vote for principles–God’s principles–that for many years have resulted in His blessing upon our nation." With that statement Franklin Graham put aside any notions of separation of church and state to endorse Mitt Romney for President, reflecting the moral biases of evangelicals in the political process.

Prior to the Presidential election of 2012, Graham said, "President Clinton said that President Obama “has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up.” But God-fearing Americans have no desire to see America rebuilt–but rather restored. To “rebuild it” would be to create a new nation without God or perhaps under many gods. This was never the intent of those who shed their blood for the freedom to worship as “one nation under God.”

This notion of restoring America has been the watchword of the Republican party since Ronald Reagan's Presidency, according to Mark Silk, who is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the Greenberg Center. It is the banner upheld during public debates and the reason for some of debates on moral values, as fundamental religious belief hearkens to the good old days of the founding fathers as the way things still should be.

"One nation under God" and "In God We Trust", however, were not the phrases used by the founding fathers, specifically those who wrote the Constitution. Instead the focus was on making sure people had certain freedoms to worship without interference and also to recognize that government and religion were not intertwined in all respects, as the separation of church and state was underlined by Thomas Jefferson as important.

These references to God came later, as many of the founding father were humanists or Deists as opposed to fundamental Christians, as many believe. President Eisenhower initiated the prayer breakfast in the 1950's and Congress added the words "In God We Trust" on all paper money during that same decade. "One nation under God" came in 1956, replacing "E Pluribus Unum." Adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance was part of this same era, as the writer, Edward Bellamy, had no reference to God in his original composition.

So as Franklin Graham made assertions about the moral consequences of electing Mitt Romney over Barack Obama, using the notion of restoring the nation to its original God-fearing ways, those same ways, at the time of independence, also included women and blacks unable to vote, folks working long hours with little concern for health and safety, and the separation of whites from blacks in every area of community life. Many of these same problems remained during the 1950's when God's name was inserted into political speeches and recitations.

The notion of restoration, referencing the founders intent, seems not be as Graham has discussed; but it does maintain an attitude that maintaining the past beliefs and direction is to be favored over rebuilding a nation in economic distress.